Sabine Pellett

• Botulinum neurotoxins: A distinct subclass of SNARE-Cleaving endopeptidases
  March 2, 2026
  Sabine Pellett Anaerobe
• Iatrogenic botulism: a risk for botulinum toxin's medical use?
  January 31, 2026
  Dirk Dressler, Jürgen Frevert, Eric A Johnson, Klaus Fink, Sabine Pellett, Sanjay Pandey, Uwe Walter, Pawel Tacik, Petr Kanovsky, Gholam Ali Shahidi, Norbert Brüggemann, Raymond L Rosales, Maja Relja, Lingjing Jin, Jose Alberto Sagastequi Rodriguez, Lizhen Pan, Gerard E Francisco, Huifang Shang, Xue Bai, Fereshte Adib Saberi Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996)
• Identification and characterization of botulinum neurotoxin-like two-component toxins in Paeniclostridium ghonii
  November 12, 2025
  Pyung-Gang Lee, Linxiang Yin, Xin Wei, Jingyuan Shi, Geoffrey Masuyer, Travis G Wentz, Pengsheng Chen, Ying Xu, Junjie Liang, Haonan Zhang, Sara Persson Košenina, Briallen Lobb, Michael Mansfield, Sarjeet S Gill, Sabine Pellett, Pål Stenmark, Andrew C Doxey, Min Dong Science advances
• Botulinum neurotoxin Light Chain/A1 uses fast synaptic vesicle cycling to cleave plasma membrane bound SNAP-25
  September 30, 2025
  Alexander Gardner, Molly Sneller, William H Tepp, Joseph T Barbieri, Sabine Pellett Communications biology
• Bifunctional Inhibition of Botulinum Neurotoxin A Protease: Unexpected Active Site Inhibition Enhances Covalent Targeting of an Allosteric Site
  April 14, 2025
  Mingliang Lin, Nishant Karadkhelkar, Yanjie Li, Lisa M Eubanks, William H Tepp, Sabine Pellett, Kim D Janda Journal of medicinal chemistry
• Expression of Recombinant Clostridial Neurotoxin by C. tetani
  January 8, 2025
  Brieana M Gregg, Sonal Gupta, William H Tepp, Sabine Pellett Microorganisms
• Potency Evaluations of Recombinant Botulinum Neurotoxin A1 Mutants Designed to Reduce Toxicity
  August 29, 2024
  Polrit Viravathana, William H Tepp, Marite Bradshaw, Amanda Przedpelski, Joseph T Barbieri, Sabine Pellett International journal of molecular sciences
• Botulinum neurotoxin X lacks potency in mice and in human neurons
  February 13, 2024
  Brieana M Gregg, Takuhiro Matsumura, Travis G Wentz, William H Tepp, Marite Bradshaw, Pål Stenmark, Eric A Johnson, Yukako Fujinaga, Sabine Pellett mBio
• Recent Developments in Vaccine Design: From Live Vaccines to Recombinant Toxin Vaccines
  September 27, 2023
  Sonal Gupta, Sabine Pellett Toxins
• Special Issue: Gram-Positive Bacterial Toxins
  August 26, 2023
  Shashi Sharma, Sabine Pellett, Stephen A Morse Microorganisms
• Botulinum Neurotoxin A4 Has a 1000-Fold Reduced Potency Due to Three Single Amino Acid Alterations in the Protein Receptor Binding Domain
  March 29, 2023
  William H Tepp, Marite Bradshaw, Alexander P Gardner, Rebecca L Kaufman, Joseph T Barbieri, Sabine Pellett International journal of molecular sciences
• Transformation of a Metal Chelate into a "Catch and Anchor" Inhibitor of Botulinum A Protease
  March 11, 2023
  Lucy Lin, Ealin N Patel, Alexander L Nielsen, Lewis D Turner, William H Tepp, Kong Nguyen, Sabine Pellett, Kim Janda International journal of molecular sciences
• How Botulinum Neurotoxin Light Chain A1 Maintains Stable Association with the Intracellular Neuronal Plasma Membrane
  December 22, 2022
  Alexander P Gardner, Joseph T Barbieri, Sabine Pellett Toxins
• Advances in Clostridial and Related Neurotoxins
  November 26, 2022
  Sabine Pellett International journal of molecular sciences
• Genomic Diversity, Competition, and Toxin Production by Group I and II Clostridium botulinum Strains Used in Food Challenge Studies
  October 27, 2022
  Brooke Kathryn Bowe, Travis Gwynn Wentz, Brieana Marie Gregg, William Howard Tepp, Kristin Marie Schill, Shashi Sharma, Sabine Pellett Microorganisms
• Investigation of Salicylanilides as Botulinum Toxin Antagonists
  July 25, 2022
  Ealin N Patel, Lucy Lin, Molly M Sneller, Lisa M Eubanks, William H Tepp, Sabine Pellett, Kim D Janda ACS infectious diseases
• Preclinical Evidence for the Role of Botulinum Neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) in the Treatment of Peripheral Nerve Injury
  May 28, 2022
  Michael Adler, Sabine Pellett, Shashi K Sharma, Frank J Lebeda, Zygmunt F Dembek, Mark A Mahan Microorganisms
• Endogenous CRISPR-Cas Systems in Group I Clostridium botulinum and Clostridium sporogenes Do Not Directly Target the Botulinum Neurotoxin Gene Cluster
  February 28, 2022
  Travis G Wentz, Benjamin J M Tremblay, Marite Bradshaw, Andrew C Doxey, Shashi K Sharma, John-Demian Sauer, Sabine Pellett Frontiers in microbiology
• Resolution of Two Steps in Botulinum Neurotoxin Serotype A1 Light Chain Localization to the Intracellular Plasma Membrane
  October 23, 2021
  Alexander Gardner, William H Tepp, Marite Bradshaw, Joseph T Barbieri, Sabine Pellett International journal of molecular sciences
• Posttranslational Regulation of Botulinum Neurotoxin Production in Clostridium botulinum Hall A-hyper
  August 4, 2021
  Heather N'te Inzalaco, William H Tepp, Chase Fredrick, Marite Bradshaw, Eric A Johnson, Sabine Pellett mSphere
• Irreversible inhibition of BoNT/A protease: proximity-driven reactivity contingent upon a bifunctional approach
  July 5, 2021
  Lewis D Turner, Alexander L Nielsen, Lucy Lin, Sabine Pellett, Takashi Sugane, Margaret E Olson, Eric A Johnson, Kim D Janda RSC medicinal chemistry
• COVALENT INHIBITION OF BOTULINUM NEUROTOXIN A – EXPLORATION OF WARHEAD REACTIVITY AND FUNCTION USING A BIFUNCTIONAL APPROACH
  June 9, 2021
  Lewis D Turner, Alexander L Nielsen, Lucy Lin, Sabine Pellett, Takashi Sugane, Margaret E Olson, Kim D Janda Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology
• Identification of 3-hydroxy-1,2-dimethylpyridine-4(1H)-thione as a metal-binding motif for the inhibition of botulinum neurotoxin A
  May 28, 2021
  Lucy Lin, Lewis D Turner, Peter Šilhár, Sabine Pellett, Eric A Johnson, Kim D Janda RSC medicinal chemistry
• Catch and Anchor Approach To Combat Both Toxicity and Longevity of Botulinum Toxin A
  September 4, 2020
  Lucy Lin, Margaret E Olson, Takashi Sugane, Lewis D Turner, Margarita A Tararina, Alexander L Nielsen, Elbek K Kurbanov, Sabine Pellett, Eric A Johnson, Seth M Cohen, Karen N Allen, Kim D Janda Journal of medicinal chemistry
• A Novel High-Potency Tetanus Vaccine
  August 14, 2020
  Amanda Przedpelski, William H Tepp, Sabine Pellett, Eric A Johnson, Joseph T Barbieri mBio
• Critical Analysis of Neuronal Cell and the Mouse Bioassay for Detection of Botulinum Neurotoxins
  December 11, 2019
  Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Eric A Johnson Toxins
• Botulinum neurotoxins A, B, C, E, and F preferentially enter cultured human motor neurons compared to other cultured human neuronal populations
  June 27, 2019
  Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Eric A Johnson FEBS letters
• Comparative functional analysis of mice after local injection with botulinum neurotoxin A1, A2, A6, and B1 by catwalk analysis
  June 11, 2019
  Molly S Moritz, William H Tepp, Heather N'te Inzalaco, Eric A Johnson, Sabine Pellett Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology
• Isolation and Characterization of the Novel Botulinum Neurotoxin A Subtype 6
  October 26, 2018
  Molly S Moritz, William H Tepp, Marite Bradshaw, Eric A Johnson, Sabine Pellett mSphere
• The Light Chain Defines the Duration of Action of Botulinum Toxin Serotype A Subtypes
  March 29, 2018
  Sabine Pellett, Marite Bradshaw, William H Tepp, Christina L Pier, Regina C M Whitemarsh, Chen Chen, Joseph T Barbieri, Eric A Johnson mBio
• A Study and Review of Effects of Botulinum Toxins on Mast Cell Dependent and Independent Pruritus
  March 24, 2018
  Roshni Ramachandran, Marc J Marino, Snighdha Paul, Zhenping Wang, Nicholas L Mascarenhas, Sabine Pellett, Eric A Johnson, Anna DiNardo, Tony L Yaksh Toxins
• Substrate cleavage and duration of action of botulinum neurotoxin type FA ("H, HA")
  December 24, 2017
  Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Guangyun Lin, Eric A Johnson Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology
• Small molecule metalloprotease inhibitor with in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo efficacy against botulinum neurotoxin serotype A
  July 13, 2017
  Alan R Jacobson, Michael Adler, Nicholas R Silvaggi, Karen N Allen, Genessa M Smith, Ross A Fredenburg, Ross L Stein, Jong-Beak Park, Xiaochuan Feng, Charles B Shoemaker, Sharad S Deshpande, Michael C Goodnough, Carl J Malizio, Eric A Johnson, Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Saul Tzipori Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on […]
• Metal Ions Effectively Ablate the Action of Botulinum Neurotoxin A
  May 6, 2017
  Paul T Bremer, Sabine Pellett, James P Carolan, William H Tepp, Lisa M Eubanks, Karen N Allen, Eric A Johnson, Kim D Janda Journal of the American Chemical Society
• Assessment of ELISA as endpoint in neuronal cell-based assay for BoNT detection using hiPSC derived neurons
  May 4, 2017
  Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Eric A Johnson, Dorothea Sesardic Journal of pharmacological and toxicological methods
• Purification and Characterization of Botulinum Neurotoxin FA from a Genetically Modified Clostridium botulinum Strain
  June 16, 2016
  Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Marite Bradshaw, Suzanne R Kalb, Janet K Dykes, Guangyun Lin, Erin M Nawrocki, Christina L Pier, John R Barr, Susan E Maslanka, Eric A Johnson mSphere
• Cellular Protection of SNAP-25 against Botulinum Neurotoxin/A: Inhibition of Thioredoxin Reductase through a Suicide Substrate Mechanism
  April 13, 2016
  Hajime Seki, Song Xue, Sabine Pellett, Peter Šilhár, Eric A Johnson, Kim D Janda Journal of the American Chemical Society
• Current status and future directions of botulinum neurotoxins for targeting pain processing
  November 12, 2015
  Sabine Pellett, Tony L Yaksh, Roshni Ramachandran Toxins
• Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Neuronal Cells Cultured on Chemically-Defined Hydrogels for Sensitive In Vitro Detection of Botulinum Neurotoxin
  September 29, 2015
  Sabine Pellett, Michael P Schwartz, William H Tepp, Richard Josephson, Jacob M Scherf, Christina L Pier, James A Thomson, William L Murphy, Eric A Johnson Scientific reports
• Heat-Labile Enterotoxin IIa, a Platform To Deliver Heterologous Proteins into Neurons
  August 13, 2015
  Chen Chen, Amanda Przedpelski, William H Tepp, Sabine Pellett, Eric A Johnson, Joseph T Barbieri mBio
• Botulinum Neurotoxins Can Enter Cultured Neurons Independent of Synaptic Vesicle Recycling
  July 25, 2015
  Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Jacob M Scherf, Eric A Johnson PloS one
• In vivo onset and duration of action varies for botulinum neurotoxin A subtypes 1-5
  July 2, 2015
  Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Regina C M Whitemarsh, Marite Bradshaw, Eric A Johnson Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology
• A Novel Botulinum Neurotoxin, Previously Reported as Serotype H, Has a Hybrid-Like Structure With Regions of Similarity to the Structures of Serotypes A and F and Is Neutralized With Serotype A Antitoxin
  June 13, 2015
  Susan E Maslanka, Carolina Lúquez, Janet K Dykes, William H Tepp, Christina L Pier, Sabine Pellett, Brian H Raphael, Suzanne R Kalb, John R Barr, Agam Rao, Eric A Johnson The Journal of infectious diseases
• Activity of botulinum neurotoxin type D (strain 1873) in human neurons
  May 5, 2015
  Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Jacob M Scherf, Christina L Pier, Eric A Johnson Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology
• Toward the discovery of dual inhibitors for botulinum neurotoxin A: concomitant targeting of endocytosis and light chain protease activity
  March 12, 2015
  Hajime Seki, Song Xue, Mark S Hixon, Sabine Pellett, Marek Remes, Eric A Johnson, Kim D Janda Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
• Analysis of gene expression in induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human neurons exposed to botulinum neurotoxin A subtype 1 and a type A atoxic derivative
  October 23, 2014
  Jacob M Scherf, Xiaoyang Serene Hu, William H Tepp, Konstantin Ichtchenko, Eric A Johnson, Sabine Pellett PloS one
• Holotoxin Activity of Botulinum Neurotoxin Subtype A4 Originating from a Nontoxigenic Clostridium botulinum Expression System
  September 21, 2014
  Marite Bradshaw, William H Tepp, Regina C M Whitemarsh, Sabine Pellett, Eric A Johnson Applied and environmental microbiology
• Persistence of botulinum neurotoxin a subtypes 1-5 in primary rat spinal cord cells
  March 4, 2014
  Regina Clare Meyer Whitemarsh, William Howard Tepp, Eric Arthur Johnson, Sabine Pellett PloS one
• Synthesis/biological evaluation of hydroxamic acids and their prodrugs as inhibitors for Botulinum neurotoxin A light chain
  December 24, 2013
  Hajime Seki, Sabine Pellett, Peter Silhár, G Neil Stowe, Beatriz Blanco, Matthew A Lardy, Eric A Johnson, Kim D Janda Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry
• Targeting botulinum A cellular toxicity: a prodrug approach
  October 17, 2013
  Peter Silhár, Lisa M Eubanks, Hajime Seki, Sabine Pellett, Sacha Javor, William H Tepp, Eric A Johnson, Kim D Janda Journal of medicinal chemistry
• Comparison of the catalytic properties of the botulinum neurotoxin subtypes A1 and A5
  October 8, 2013
  Dongxia Wang, Joan Krilich, Sabine Pellett, Jakub Baudys, William H Tepp, John R Barr, Eric A Johnson, Suzanne R Kalb Biochimica et biophysica acta
• Characterization of botulinum neurotoxin A subtypes 1 through 5 by investigation of activities in mice, in neuronal cell cultures, and in vitro
  August 7, 2013
  Regina C M Whitemarsh, William H Tepp, Marite Bradshaw, Guangyun Lin, Christina L Pier, Jacob M Scherf, Eric A Johnson, Sabine Pellett Infection and immunity
• Evaluation of adamantane hydroxamates as botulinum neurotoxin inhibitors: synthesis, crystallography, modeling, kinetic and cellular based studies
  January 24, 2013
  Peter Šilhár, Nicholas R Silvaggi, Sabine Pellett, Kateřina Čapková, Eric A Johnson, Karen N Allen, Kim D Janda Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry
• Progress in cell based assays for botulinum neurotoxin detection
  December 15, 2012
  Sabine Pellett Current topics in microbiology and immunology
• Model for studying Clostridium botulinum neurotoxin using differentiated motor neuron-like NG108-15 cells
  September 25, 2012
  Regina C M Whitemarsh, Christina L Pier, William H Tepp, Sabine Pellett, Eric A Johnson Biochemical and biophysical research communications
• Learning from the past: historical aspects of bacterial toxins as pharmaceuticals
  June 2, 2012
  Sabine Pellett Current opinion in microbiology
• Novel application of human neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells for highly sensitive botulinum neurotoxin detection
  January 7, 2012
  Regina C M Whitemarsh, Monica J Strathman, Lucas G Chase, Casey Stankewicz, William H Tepp, Eric A Johnson, Sabine Pellett Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology
• Rapid immune responses to a botulinum neurotoxin Hc subunit vaccine through in vivo targeting to antigen-presenting cells
  May 18, 2011
  David M White, Sabine Pellett, Mark A Jensen, William H Tepp, Eric A Johnson, Barry G W Arnason Infection and immunity
• Neuronal targeting, internalization, and biological activity of a recombinant atoxic derivative of botulinum neurotoxin A
  February 3, 2011
  Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Larry H Stanker, Philip A Band, Eric A Johnson, Konstantin Ichtchenko Biochemical and biophysical research communications
• Sensitive and quantitative detection of botulinum neurotoxin in neurons derived from mouse embryonic stem cells
  December 7, 2010
  Sabine Pellett, Zhong-wei Du, Christina L Pier, William H Tepp, Su-chun Zhang, Eric A Johnson Biochemical and biophysical research communications
• Botulinum neurotoxin subtype A2 enters neuronal cells faster than subtype A1
  December 4, 2010
  Christina L Pier, Chen Chen, William H Tepp, Guangyun Lin, Kim D Janda, Joseph T Barbieri, Sabine Pellett, Eric A Johnson FEBS letters
• Comparison of the primary rat spinal cord cell (RSC) assay and the mouse bioassay for botulinum neurotoxin type A potency determination
  January 27, 2010
  Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Stephen I Toth, Eric A Johnson Journal of pharmacological and toxicological methods
• Toosendanin: synthesis of the AB-ring and investigations of its anti-botulinum properties (Part II)
  January 2, 2010
  Yuya Nakai, Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Eric A Johnson, Kim D Janda Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry
• Benzylidene cyclopentenediones: First irreversible inhibitors against botulinum neurotoxin A's zinc endopeptidase
  November 17, 2009
  Katerina Capková, Mark S Hixon, Sabine Pellett, Joseph T Barbieri, Eric A Johnson, Kim D Janda Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry letters
• Bimodal modulation of the botulinum neurotoxin protein-conducting channel
  January 24, 2009
  Audrey Fischer, Yuya Nakai, Lisa M Eubanks, Colin M Clancy, William H Tepp, Sabine Pellett, Tobin J Dickerson, Eric A Johnson, Kim D Janda, Mauricio Montal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• Selection and characterization of a human monoclonal neutralizing antibody for Clostridium Botulinum neurotoxin serotype B
  December 30, 2008
  Heyue Zhou, Bin Zhou, Sabine Pellett, Eric A Johnson, Kim D Janda Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry letters
• Delineating the susceptibility of botulinum neurotoxins to denaturation through thermal effects
  April 9, 2008
  Bin Zhou, Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Heyue Zhou, Eric A Johnson, Kim D Janda FEBS letters
• A neuronal cell-based botulinum neurotoxin assay for highly sensitive and specific detection of neutralizing serum antibodies
  September 25, 2007
  Sabine Pellett, William H Tepp, Colin M Clancy, Gary E Borodic, Eric A Johnson FEBS letters
• Plasmid encoded neurotoxin genes in Clostridium botulinum serotype A subtypes
  July 31, 2007
  Kristin M Marshall, Marite Bradshaw, Sabine Pellett, Eric A Johnson Biochemical and biophysical research communications
• Mak16p is required for the maturation of 25S and 5.8S rRNAs in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
  May 20, 2006
  Sabine Pellett, James W Tracy Yeast (Chichester, England)

Our lab’s research focuses on Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum) and its neurotoxins as pathogens and agents of serious foodborne illness and as important and unique pharmaceuticals that are widely used for many clinical applications around the world.  We are a state-of-the-art lab continuing a long-term botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) research program with a rich history at UW-Madison, starting with Ed Schantz’s production of first crystalline BoNTs, Ed Schantz and Eric Johnson’s production of the first batches of pharmaceutically used BoNTs, and many novel discoveries.

Ongoing research in our lab examines toxin production by C. botulinum, purification and characterization of BoNTs and related homologs, lateral transfer of BoNT genes within Clostridium, structure function studies of novel BoNTs, investigations of countermeasures for botulism including vaccines and small molecule inhibitors, development of novel BoNT based pharmaceuticals, tetanus vaccines, and food safety studies.

Education

B.S. Biology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
M.A. Biology, Portland State University, Portland, OR
PhD. Env. & Mol. Toxicology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Postdoctoral Research: Food Microbiology & Toxicology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Affiliations

Member of International Neurotoxin Association: 2012 – current
Member of American Society of Microbiologists (ASM): 2013-current
Consultant for Merz Pharma (Germany): 2013 – ongoing
Expert consultant for UW-Madison Institutional Biosafety Committee: 2017-current

• Ahmad Alshannaq – Scientist
• Miriam Guevara – Grad Student
• Syahmi (Sam) Hisham – Research Specialist
• Madhushree Nanjegowda – Grad Student
• Bill Tepp – Researcher II
• Polrit Viravathana – Postdoc
• Kara Vogel – Scientist II